Blog Tour + Excerpt + Giveaway: Half of Me series by Diana T. Scott

Half of Me series is one of my favorite romance series. I’ve read Our Demons, Best Friends and Love Me While I’m Gone and they definitely made me swoon. Today I’m going to feature the synopsis and excerpt of the third book of the series, Color Me Yours which will be out this August 8. Enjoy!

What happens if you wake up one morning and you don’t recognize the person staring back at you in the mirror? When you throw yourself into a relationship so deeply, it swallows you whole and spits you out a totally different person? A person you don’t particularly like… For Paige, it takes ten minutes to decide she needs to go back to Chicago, the first place she ever called home and the last she felt like herself in. The place where she’ll find a purpose and friends she never knew she needed.
But what if her best friend starts to see her before she sees herself? Can she trust him to search between scattered pieces and handpick the ones that belong only to her?

We find the college and the floor we’re supposed to be on just in time. When we get to the second floor, there are six more people waiting outside the classroom, everyone talking in pairs. The teacher opens the door and motions for everyone to come inside.

“Please, take a seat wherever you like,” she says, then goes to the front of the medium-sized room. The place looks like a normal classroom, except the desks are individual, taller and made out of wood, and there is no desk for the teacher. On either side of the room are sculptures, all in different stages of the process. I want to look at them closer, but everyone is already in their seats. Miles silently asks me where should we sit and I choose one desk closer to the windows. He follows me and takes the one next to mine. They’re close enough that we could talk if needed. Or allowed.

“Hello, everyone, and welcome to Introduction to Sculpting!” the teacher begins. “My name is Alexandra, but you can call me Lexi. I’ll be your teacher for the next couple of hours.” Now that I’m here, I’m actually really excited. I’ve always wanted to try something like this. Art, in general, has always interested me.

I turn to Miles and beam at him. He chuckles silently and turns around to pay attention to the teacher speaking.

“Since this is your very first class, we should begin with a small introduction of the objects you all have in front of you.”

I look at the things on my desk and see a big plastic container full of clay and a few instruments by its side. Lexi tells us all about the different types of clay and why she chose this particular oil-based one for our first session, and then she proceeds to explain what the instruments are called and when should we use them. I find it all so extremely interesting, I barely acknowledge the presence of anybody else around me. Except Miles. I steal glances his way whenever I hear something particularly fascinating, trying to gauge his reaction to it all. Is he enjoying this as much as I am?

“Now that you have the basic info, we should get started with the fun part,” Lexi says. She makes us take a blob of clay the size of our fists from the plastic container in front of us and knead it until it’s soft and malleable. Meanwhile, she speaks.

“Let’s talk about the human anatomy for a bit,” she begins.

“Now this part we should be good at,” Miles leans towards me and says, making me laugh.

“We do have an advantage here,” I agree, nodding.

“When I say ‘nose’ or ‘ear,’” Lexi continues, “everyone has an image popping into their heads. There isn’t any doubt we’re all thinking about the same thing, right? But how much attention do we actually pay to these small body parts? Enough to know every detail, every crease? Enough to be able to sculpt it?”

Miles and I, as confident as we were a second ago, look at each other wide-eyed.

“Let’s see. How about we all try to sculpt a nose?” Lexi asks. “I’ll work right by your side.” She takes a seat at one of the desks and starts molding some clay.

“Hmm.” Miles turns my way. “Whose nose should I make?”

Everyone has started whispering and giggling while trying to sculpt noses, so I don’t feel the need to remain silent, either.

“Your own, probably,” I tell him.

“Yeah, I don’t think so.” He gets up from his desk and moves it a few inches closer to mine. Now our elbows are touching. He puts an elbow on his workspace, his head resting on his hand, and stares at me for a good couple of minutes. I try my best to ignore him and mold the clay in front of me in the shape required, but it’s practically impossible with him staring at me like that.

“Stop staring at my nose!” I whisper-shout, making him laugh. “I can’t focus!”

“No, no,” Lexi says, making us both look her way. We didn’t even hear her approaching us. “That’s good. Look at each other; observe the size, the details.”

“See?” Miles says. “The teacher says I can stare at you for as long as I want.” He smirks at me and moves even closer.

This class is doomed to fail, I think to myself.

Writer of Our Demons, Best Friends, Love Me While I’m Gone and Color Me Yours. Perpetually sleep deprived, but never sorry. I am a colorful mix of the things I love. Chocolate eclairs. The sound of a guitar. The first snow of the year. Sleeping on freshly washed sheets. The smell of a new book. Man buns. Using rock-paper-scissors to settle an argument. Old, washed up jeans. Comfort food. Old people acting like kids. The ocean. My dog. My family.